Tuesday, February 05, 2008

"Total Loss"

The insurance called today and told me that the van is a total loss. She defined that for me: it will cost more to fix than it's worth.

I was confused, though. After taking off the deductible, the check they're planning to send me (assuming we don't buy the car back) is still $1200 higher than the estimate given to repair it fully. The mechanic told me that some companies will only repair if the repairs are less than 70% or 75% of the value of the car. My insurance agent confirmed that our company does this for all vehicles, not just for new ones. But the pay-out when the car is totaled is nevertheless the full value.

So it looks like we'll be probably be buying the car back and repairing it ourselves with the check from the insurance company. So maybe the loss is not quite so total as they're saying!

1 comment:

  1. Our insurance company handles "totaled" vehicles in the same manner. When I was hit on the interstate last fall, the damage exceeded the low Blue Book value and the car was totaled. We had dropped full coverage 2 months earlier. Due to the Michigan no-fault insurance, I received $500 for our van. Btw, I'm still driving the ugly totaled van. I'm sorry for all the car hassles, but I'm glad that you're going to be able to repair your car.

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